October 2, 1995
Although Ducornet's Tetralogy of Elements ended in 1993 with the NBCC nominee The Jade Cabinet, her wondrous new novel might represent the most unpredictable property of all: light. In letters to a friend, the lonely narrator describes the fantastical history of his native Birdland. In the mid-17th century, a clubfooted, cross-eyed baby was abandoned on the doorstep of the island's unsavory and unique prelate, Fogginus. Nicknamed Phosphor for his fancied luminosity, the child spends much of his youth locked away in his guardian's sea trunk, where he re-discovers the camera obscura, gradually embellishing its images with a third dimension and permanence. Together with Fogginus and his patron, Fango Fantasma, a particularly noxious local grandee, Phosphor sets out to document Birdland both in images (through which Fantasma believes he will possess the island) and in an epic poem about his homeland. Phosphor in Dreamland is filled with wry references to Swift (a scholarly double biography titled A Swift and Phosphorous Eye is alluded to), and like that satirist's, Ducornet's humor is sly and sharp. Unlike Swift, though, she also conveys a tender melancholy: for the last of the aboriginal loplops, a giant bird tended by an arboreal barber, and for Birdland's past, which is preserved only by Phosphor's invention. ``Thanks to this wonderful machine, a city that exists no more, a world still even to sublimity, is contained as if by magic on flat pieces of glass.''
October 15, 1995
In Ducornet's (The Jade Cabinet, LJ 2/1/93) fifth novel, Australia meets Birdland (an imaginary Caribbean island), the 20th century intersects with the 17th, and magical realism confronts a lit-crit parody of famed satirist Jonathan Swift. This engaging novel, although extremely well written, lacks the tension and plot-driven engine that will keep you awake all night. But for those interested in a more playful pace, it details the invention of the ocularscope (an early forerunner of the camera) and the brutal slaying of the last loplop on earth, a bird that begged for mercy in an almost human-sounding voice. While moving from brilliant fantasy to brilliant fantasy--my favorite is the arboreal barbershop--this novel's prose comes alive with images. Judging from her skill with language displayed here, it's obvious that Ducornet is also a poet. The characters--Senor Fantasma; his strongman, Yahoo Clay; the professor, Tardanza; the boy-child, Pulco; the poet, Phosphor; and his bride, Extravaganza--represent archetypes. "If Fantasma was cursed with anxiety, Yahoo Clay was damned with rage." This is an adventure tale--the exploration of Birdland--and also a love story: Phosphor and Extravaganza, newly married, share their dreams each morning upon awakening. Indeed, the whole book is an inquiry into the nature of dreaming. And, as Professor Tardanza wisely acknowledges, "Dreams are the key to the human soul." Recommended for larger fiction collections.--Doris Lynch, Bloomington P.L., Ind.